Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is "on the mend" and working from home, the State Department’s spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Clinton had been recovering from a bout of stomach flu last week when she fainted and ended up with a concussion. Clinton informed the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees this weekend that she would be unable to testify at upcoming hearings about the deadly events in Benghazi, Libya, at the advice of her doctors. In her place, deputies Thomas Nides and Bill Burns will testify on Thursday.

Clinton was finishing her cover letter to Congress to accompany the independent Benghazi review that was just completed, as she recuperates at home from her concussion injury and stomach virus, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

The classified version of the independent review is being sent to Congress Tuesday afternoon, and an unclassified version could be released for public consumption as early as Wednesday, the same day that former Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, who led the review, brief congressional committees about their findings.
Nuland said that it was "completely untrue" that Clinton was using her illness to avoid testifying this week about Benghazi, allegations made in the New York Post opinion page and on Fox News by former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.

"She's going to be absolutely fine. She is working at home," Nuland said. "She's been on the phone and in e-mail contact with senior staff. She's been working on other issues - Syria, the DPRK [North Korea] today. These are people that don't know what they are talking about."

In a statement from Clinton's doctors released over the weekend, Clinton was told to "rest and avoid any strenuous activity." The doctors said the "strongly advised her to cancel all work events for the coming week."

"You almost want to give the brain rest as well. Doctors will literally say don't read anything, don't watch television, don't get on a computer. You really want to put the brain to rest for a while to allow the brain to recover from a concussion," Gupta said. "The best way to get recovery, full recovery, from a concussion is to really not do anything."

Gupta said the fact Clinton is at home, and not the in the hospital, suggests the nature of the injury may not be too severe.

"I think they obviously would have a low threshold for having her in the hospital. In this case, she's not. So I think the antenna is lowered here," Gupta explained over the weekend.

Gupta, a neurosurgeon, guessed that recovery would take about a week, though he was not privy to her specific case.

"What you want to do is you slowly reintroduce activity, you know, allow someone to start reading, maybe engaging in some exercise, and seeing if any of those symptoms come back. If they come back, then, you're sort of back on rest again. So, it can be back and forth for a little bit. My guess is a week. That's typical with a mild concussion," he said.

Nuland said Tuesday that Clinton’s doctors “and all the people close to her are trying to encourage her to take the time she needs to be well.”

In a letter to the Senate and House foreign affairs committees, Clinton said she "looks forward to continuing to engage them in January, and she will be open to whatever they consider appropriate in that regard," Nuland said earlier this week.

soundoff(253 Responses)

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Although concussions usually are caused by a blow to the head, they can also occur when the head and upper body are violently shaken. These injuries can cause a loss of consciousness, but most concussions do not. Because of this, some people have concussions and don't realize it. ,....`

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Personally i think Hillary has bad a nervous breakdown that they are covering up. the flu and falling and the concussion and dropping from sight for a week–something dosent right right. also the stress from bin ghazi. theres more to it then what they are saying. cant be sure–thats my opinion

John Bolton was one of the worst UN ambassadors we ever had in the nation. He's now a regular fixture on FOX (that says a lot right there). His comments on Hillary's illness are disgraceful and unbecoming coming from a former UN ambassador.

Democracks don't care about this OBVIOUS COVER UP! THEY DON'T CARE THAT AMERICANS WERE MURDERED IN BENGHAZI....THEY JUST CARE ABOUT TAXING THE RICH. ONLY AN IDIOT WOULD HAVE VOTED FOR THIS DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION! LIES, SEVERAL COVER-UPS INVOLVING DEATHS/MURDERS, LARGEST DEFICIT FOR ANY PRESIDENT, NO IMPROVEMENT IN UNEMPLOYMENT SINCE ELECTED, AND THE LIST GOES ON AND ON AND ON.............

They did not care about 25 years of Rev. Wright, black panthers, suppressing or intimidating voters, fast and furious. Who does not have a copy of their birth certificates.Candy Crawley The debates The media Watch your second amendment RIGHTS THE JOKE OF THE YEAR / TIME MAGAZINE do the lies ever stop?IT IS TIME FOR SOMEBODY TO TAKE OUT THE TRASH. IMPEACHMENT

@stop your madness,get over it idiot,impeach who..Better hang your expresident Bush for screwing up this country and starting senseless,needless wars the way he did or did yah forget!!Boy where the hell did you come from and boy check out your meds lately ,yah better!!And look up republicans and Nathan Sproul big boy and see how republicans gerrymandered and supressed votes until caught in many minority led cities,forgot those,I didn't!!

August 7, 2013 at 5:45 pm |

StanCalif

Wait a minute! George W. wasn't a democrat! Talk about a liar and murderer!!!
What about keeping the "financial meltdown" a secret until after inauguration day! Surely "they" knew what was coming!
And Dick Cheney's love of the environment (true, no oil wells ever killed walruses in the Gulf!).

This administration can't do anything wrong in this main stream liberal media. Never held accountable, asked the tough questions? They bow at Obama's feet like he is some kind of massiah, the anointed one. At the end of his second term we will be over 20 trillion in hole and they will still love him for it. UNBELIEVABLE!!!

This is BULL. Liberals will eat it up.
A democrat puts themselves before others again....
Hypocrite. A working class citizen could NOT get away with something like this. Imagine....
"Sorry guys. Can make the meeting. I was hun... had a stomach flu and got dehydrated. Then I bumped my noggin. I know it was a week ago. But I swear my doctor said I should REST ma brain. So Ill get back to you on...
Look at that! Christmass! Ill see you goys in January!"

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